Armando Bó (3 May 19148 October 1981) was an Argentine film actor, director, producer, screenwriter and score composer. He began his career as an actor and producer during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema of the 1930s and 1940s. In 1956, Bó met Isabel Sarli and cast her as the lead actress in his film Thunder Among the Leaves (1957), in which she made the first full frontal nude in the history of Argentine cinema. Bó and Sarli became both romantic and commercial partners, and the duo turned to the sexploitation genre in the 1960s and 1970s, these films being considered emblematic of the genre.
Bó's son is the actor/producer Víctor Bó and his grandson is the screenwriter and director Armando Bó.
Biography Bó began acting for film in 1939 in Ambición and made some 50 film appearances as an actor, but by the late 1940s he had already taken up an interest in film production and began as a director, producer, actor, and screenwriter in the early 1950s. He was involved in almost 100 different films during his career.
In June 1956, he met Isabel Sarli on a television show. He later offered her the opportunity to star in El trueno entre las hojas (Thunder in the Leaves). Bo tricked Sarli to appear naked in a scene in which she bathed in a lake, though she had previously been told she would wear a flesh-colored body stocking. The film became the first to feature full frontal nudity in Argentine cinema. Bo and Sarli became lovers and he continued to exploit her in his films, many, in which she was asked to perform sex acts on film always starring him as her lover. She became the primary star of his films until his death in 1981. Upon his death Sarli was given no rights to any of the films they made together.
Their films were controversial at the time and most of them were banned, but this ban led them to be even more successful. Films like Fuego (1969) and Fiebre (1970) reached the American and European markets. The banning of Fuego led to them moving into exile.
He was married to Teresa Machinandiarena, and had three children: María Inés, María Jesús, and Víctor. His son, Víctor Bó, was a prominent actor in Argentina during the 70s and 80s. His grandsons are Academy Award winners Nicolás Giacobone and Armando Bó Jr., credited as Armando Bó.
Filmography Year Film Role Notes and Awards1939Ambition Chimbela ...Y mañana serán hombres 1940Un señor mucamo Nosotros, los muchachos Fragata Sarmiento 1941Melodies of America El más infeliz del pueblo Mamá Gloria La maestrita de los obreros Si yo fuera rica Joven, viuda y estanciera InvitadoCándida millonaria 1942Tú eres la paz Story of a Poor Young Man 1944 The Abyss Opens 1945Villa Rica del Espíritu Santo The Circus Cavalcade 1946The Three Musketeers D'Artagnan 1947La caraba Si mis campos hablaranSimon 1948Su última pelea Pelota de trapo 1949Con el sudor de tu frente 1950Fangio, el demonio de las pistas Sacachispas 1951My Divine Poverty Honour Your Mother En cuerpo y alma Antonio Núñez1953Muerte civil El Hijo del crack Héctor 'Balazo' López1955Adiós, muchachos 1956El trueno entre las hojas 1958Sabaleros 1959...Y el demonio creó a los hombres 1962Lujuria tropical La Burrerita de Ypacaraí 1963Pelota de cuero La Diosa impura Reinoso1964La mujer del zapatero La leona 1966La tentación desnuda 1968La mujer de mi padre Jose1969Éxtasis tropical Fuego Carlos1970Fiebre Juan1972Intimidades de una cualquiera Jose Luis1973La diosa virgen Furia infernal Barbara's husband1974El sexo y el amor 1976Insaciable 1977Una mariposa en la noche 1979El último amor en Tierra del Fuego
Legacy Renowned filmmaker John Waters has claimed to be a big fan of Bó's filmography, and to have been influenced by it as well. Waters presented Bó's 1969 cult film Fuego as his annual selection within the 2002 Maryland Film Festival, and it was also a featured film in episode three of the Here! network original series John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You.
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